1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a dental surgical template, and more particularly to a method of making a surgical template used for a computer-guided dental implant surgery.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional method of making a surgical template used for a computer-guided dental implant surgery disclosed in Taiwanese Patent No. 093121438 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In step 101, silicone is applied within a casing 14, and is pressed against a patient's jaw. After the silicone is cured, it forms a negative surgical template body 11.
In step 102, in an imaging process, a three-dimensional geometrical image of the patient's jaw is obtained by computerized tomography (CT) technique. Subsequently, the three-dimensional geometrical image is provided to a computer for analysis to thereby further obtain implant planning data, such as depth, length, position, inclination angle, etc.
In step 103, a movable support is moved to adjust the position and inclination angle of the negative template body 11 such that the negative plate body 11 can be drilled to form implant guide holes 12 according to the data obtained in the step 102.
In step 104, a plurality of sleeves 13 are inserted respectively into the implant guide holes 12 in the negative template body 11 to thereby form the surgical template for guiding a drill through the negative template body 11 and into the patient's jaw during dental implant surgery.
In the conventional method, to apply the implant planning data to the negative template body 11 for performing the hole-drilling step and the sleeve-inserting step, it is necessary to relate the negative template body 11 with the computer-operated virtual three-dimensional geometrical image of the patient's jaw. However, in such correlation, since only a small amount of overlapping portions occur between the negative template body 11 and the virtual three-dimensional geometrical image, it is difficult to correct the distortions in CT scan of the patient's jaw. As a result, several repeated corrections are required to obtain a comparatively accurate surgical template 11, which reduces the efficiency of the conventional method.